Angela Merkel vowed that she would deliver more successful years for Germany as exit polls indicated a commanding lead for her party over the main opposition. Angela Merkel is heading for a third term as Germanys chancellor, as exit polls showed she could even be on course for the historic achievement of an absolute majority in the countrys parliament. An early projection by the state broadcaster ARD on Sunday evening showed Mrs Merkels Christian Democrat party (CDU) winning 301 seats in the 598-seat Bundestag, enough to form a government without a coalition partner. Later projections suggested, however, that she could fall just short of an absolute majority. Exit polls and early results put the CDU on 42.5 per cent of the vote, a lead of 17 points over the main opposition. It had been expected that Mrs Merkel would be forced into a grand coalition with her main socialist opponents, the Social Democrats. The early results suggested that she might avoid this. This is a super result, Mrs Merkel, 59, told cheering supporters. We will do all we can in the next four years together to make them successful years for Germany. It is too early to say how we will proceed but today we should celebrate. The last time a party won an outright majority in a German election was in 1957, under the Christian Democrat leader Konrad Adenauer. Another four-year term for Mrs Merkel, would ultimately see her eclipse Margaret Thatcher as the European Unions longest serving female head of government. The eurozone crisis has hit the careers of other European leaders, but not that of the Protestant pastors daughter from East Germany.

This result, if confirmed, would see the FDP, a liberal pro-business party, drop out of the Bundestag for the first time in its history..............Let's hope we can follow Germany's example in the next election.

So not a peep from the MSM about how the hated and feared “austerity” has increased German employment and almost eliminated the German budget deficit? A couple of years ago, the MSM was claiming it would destroy the German economy and Europe to boot.

What does it take for liberals to admit error?

5
posted on 09/22/2013 5:45:05 PM PDT
by mandaladon
(The truth about Benghazi is all I want)

That's because German tax laws encourage German companies to keep as much production in Germany as possible. Why do you think automobiles from the Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen and Audi), BMW, and Mercedes-Benz are still mostly assembled in Germany? Or why Siemens--well-known for medical device manufacturing--is still assembling such devices in Germany?

Do you know what European austerity consists of? Forced raising of taxes at the same time as cutting spending. The social programs sure wouldnt be missed if people were not being put out of jobs (they are being expanded to a certain degree, though). And the bailout loans (they are not grants) have the draconian requirement of continual surrender of national sovereignty, except of course on the part of just one EU country. This is designed to exacerbate the crisis, not solve it. It sure is not in line with US conservative principles.

The systen is working for them. They are making millions of dollars a year. They have vacation homes all over the world. They have hundreds of people working for them worldwide, not just in Germany. Their workforce in Germany is highly educated, and motivated.

An early projection by the state broadcaster ARD on Sunday evening showed Mrs Merkels Christian Democrat party (CDU) winning 301 seats in the 598-seat Bundestag, enough to form a government without a coalition partner. Later projections suggested, however, that she could fall just short of an absolute majority... 42.5 per cent of the vote, a lead of 17 points over the main opposition... [but still] forced into a grand coalition with her main socialist opponents, the Social Democrats. The early results suggested that she might avoid this.

21
posted on 09/22/2013 7:28:17 PM PDT
by SunkenCiv
(It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)

Well, this sounds like very good news, at least for morale. As Impy noted on another thread, all the media were predicting Merkel would get a spanking at the polls and only stay in power by forming a "coalition" government with the Socialists. It sounds to me like Merkel is doing far better than expected and her party (the Christian Democratic Union) is currently at 311 seats, 10 more than the 301 they needed to continue to control the German Congress.

On the negative side, all three parties running against her seem to be far-left wackos (Socialist Democrats, The Left, and the German Green Party... hey at least they're honest about what they stand for!), so there will still be plenty of lefties in government to block anything decent. Merkel's also not even that conservative by American standards, but I would say she's far better than what passes for "conservative" in other nearby Western European nations like England and France. Today's Tories under gay marriage luvin' David Cameron sure aren't Margaret Thatcher's Party.

Since it's usually pretty hard for a national leader to win a third term with an outright majority, and considering this is coming on the heels of big conservative wins in Australia and Norway, I'd say it's a best case scenario.

The official confirmed results have her just short of a majority. Her coalition partner the FDP and the new Anti-Euro Alternative for Germany (That Merkel wouldn’t have wanted to work with) both narrowly failed to get the 5% necessary to win seats. Combined the right parties won 51% of the party list vote but it doesn’t matter.

This is not good, the right lost seats overall, Merkel’s CDU/CSU benefited from the failure of her coalition partner.

The SPD and Greens could theoretically team up with the commies to form a bare majority but the SPD has ruled it out.

She’ll have to do the Grand coalition (her preference) or team with the smaller Greens instead (probably better because they’d have less influence). Disgusting. Nothing to celebrate. She stays in power but with a new leftist tumor attached to her hip. I consider this a loss since the SPD/Greens actually winning was never in the cards. Best thing that could happen is the SPD and Greens refuse to play ball and there’s a new election soon that goes better. I’m sure the SPD will play ball though.

I think the problem now is that their governing partner, the “Free Democratic” Party (I guess they’re kind of mildly economic libertarians/free markets) didn’t win ANY seats. Merkel’s party actually GAINED a larger number of seats compared to the previous election, instead of losing seats like the media was rooting for. But without the Free Democrats, they would have to form a governing agreement with one of the left-wing parties unless they can get an absolute majority in Bundestag (German lower house).

Is the Bundesrat (German Senate) up for election, and do the numbers there affect who runs the government? They’re appointed by state governments via backroom deals by a small group of elite politicians, so its an anti-17ther’s wet dream.

Yeah, if I HAD to pick one of the left wing parties to form a government with, I’d go with the Greens because they’re smaller and more marginalized. (if they’re anything like the Green Party USA, they’re probably also more honest, less corrupt, and more efficient at managing things, but far left wackjobs)

My 2006 proposal for a “grand coalition” of a RINO (Topinka) Green (Whitney) Constitution Party (Randy Stufflebeam) government in Illinois replacing the Chicago Dems is sounding better and better. Topinka could name Comrade Rich Whitney as Lt. Governor and promise the Greens they could legalize weed and give everyone solar powered cars, and appoint a Green to some useless state dept. like Chairman of the Illinois Arts Council. It couldn’t be worse than what we got under Blago and Quinn, and if it did, Stufflebeam would have veto power anyway and could threaten to leave the RINO-Green government at any time, and they’d need his 0.5% to have a majority. ;-)

Getting back to Germany though, and in all seriousness... I wonder what the difference between the Socialist Democrat and “The Left” Party is? I googled them and the Socialists are supposedly only “center-left” yet “Marxist-influenced” and part of the alliance of “International Socialists”. On the other hand, “The Left” party is supposedly “far-left” and “somewhat extremist”. It reminds me of that recent NYC election where the Dem who won was supposedly “more progressive” than the openly lesbian marxist. God help us if the “marxist influenced party” aligned with International Socialists is the “more moderate” party.

The results appear to be final. Those Germans sure count faster than the Aussies.

The state elections that determine the control to the upper house are staggered. I think Merkel lost her majority there some time ago. In the chamber they have to vote by state, they can send as many members as they have votes but they can just send 1 to cast all the votes if they want, several states are governed by a CDU/SPD coalitions since the FDP has been getting it’s ass kicked in state elections too, very weird system. Basically to control it you have to have control enough state governments to make up a majority of seats. Bigger states have more seats.

Weird and complicated. So if we did that here for the US House the Illinois legislature could appoint Dick Durban to cast all 18 votes or could send 18 members but they’d have to vote together.

“The Left” (Die Linke) are commies who want to literally end capitalism (not just neuter it like the SPD and Greens and most US democrats), they were formed a few years ago from combination of 2 former parties, the East German commies (they were the same party with a new name) and the left most wing of SPD that broke off and formed a new party because Gerhardt Schoder wasn’t governing poorly enough for them (imagine if the democrats who think Obama is too conservative went rouge).

2 million inhabitants have 4 votes,
6 million inhabitants have 5 votes,
7 million inhabitants have 6 votes.”

The “good guys” control only 3 states (worth 15 of 69 seats), the rest are opposition or grand coalition controlled.

The lower house determines the government the upper house can be overruled on anything (it has a veto) that doesn’t have to do with state government powers. Obviously they argue to apply that as broadly as possible. But if the upper house vetoes something with a 2/3 majority then it takes a 2/3 majority of the lower house to overrule.

You mean the crooked German state legislatures HAVEN'T created a Senate full of thoughtful Thomas Jefferson-style wise elder statesmen who are classical liberals that adhere strictly to the constitution and carefully craft legislation to reflect federalism and the best interests of their respective states?

>> if we did that here for the US House the Illinois legislature could appoint Dick Durban to cast all 18 votes or could send 18 members but theyd have to vote together. <<

Knowing Illinois politics, they'd pick the latter option and find 17 more hacks/cronies who will vote as a bloc the way Mike Madigan tells them to. More cushy government jobs for Chicago machine loyalty (probably most of the ones who end up in the electoral college would get a U.S. Senate seat).

In fact, the bread and butter money-making airliners for Airbus (the A320 Family) are mostly assembled in Germany at an assembly line near Hamburg.

Believe me, Germans vacation all over the world nowadays. Why do you think Lufthansa is flying the world's largest airliner, the Airbus A380, to San Francisco from Frankfurt-am-Main pretty much year-round? Every time I visit Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco I hear a lot of tourists speaking German....

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